A little honest insight about the World Series champion San Francisco Giants (2010, 2012, 2014) from a blog that ranked in the Top 100 of MLB.com Fan Blogs of 2012-14

Results tagged ‘ Jean Machi ’

San Francisco Giants’ Jean Machi lays down a bunt during the 13th inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh Tuesday , May 6, 2014. Giants’ Hunter Pence on the misplayed bunt and the Giants went on to win in 13 innings, 11-10. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The Giants had hit a home run in their last 11 consecutive games entering Monday’s game in Pittsburgh.

They had hit 21 home runs over that 11-game span.

Home runs had accounted for 30 of the 49 runs the Giants scored over that 11-game span.

Home runs had accounted for 32 of the last 38 runs the Giants had scored on the road since April 5.

But that all ended Monday in the most unusual fashion.

The Giants rallied from an 8-2 deficit and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-10 in 13 innings, extending their current win streak to six games.

They smacked out 20 hits — none of which were home runs.

It was the first time since July 25, 1961 that the Giants had 20 or more hits in a game without hitting a home run. That was a 16-7 win in, of all places, Pittsburgh.

Forbes Field was a monstrous field, nothing like PNC Park.

Bruce Bochy flushed his bench by the ninth inning, burning Juan Perez and Ehire Adrianza as pinch-runners. Perez stayed in the game for left-fielder Michael Morse.

Madison Bumgarner was used as a pinch-hitter. He grounded out. Santiago Casilla threw 40 pitches in two innings of relief, including a 14-pitch at-bat to Neil Walker that ended with a strikeout.

Angel Pagan had three hits, so did Hunter Pence, so did Buster Posey. Hector Sanchez had four hits.

And with all those hits, the Giants’ game-winning rally in the 13th produced a run without a hit. The key plate appearance was made by a relief pitcher — Jean Machi — who had just one previous plate appearance in the big leagues. That was last season. He struck out.

He only had two at-bats in the minors. But he got a hit — a double and an RBI.

The weirdness for Machi started on the mound.

Machi entered the game in the 11th inning. After allowing a single to Andrew McCutchen and striking out Pedro Alvarez, he fielded a comebacker by Sterling Marte. Machi turned and threw to second, but his throw hit umpire Jerry Davis for an error. Machi then got Ike Davis to hit into an inning-ending double play.

In the 12th inning, Gerrit Cole hit a comebacker to Machi, who deflected the ball to second baseman Brandon Hicks, allowing Cole to reach on an infield single.

After striking out Jose Tabata, Machi deflected another ball hit up the middle, one that would have been a custom-made double play to Hicks. Instead, the deflected ball allowed Jordy Mercer to reach on an infield single.

Then Machi got Chris Stewart to hit into an inning-ending double play.

In the top of the 13th, Hunter Pence started things with a one-out walk. Then Perez, and his whopping .059 batting average, received a gift. He was hit by a pitch.

Manager Bruce Bochy then left Machi in the game to sacrifice the runners over, something he’s never even attempted in 13 seasons of professional baseball.

Machi put down the perfect bunt. Pitcher Jared Hughes fielded the bunt, slipped a bit on the grass, then threw errantly to first, allowing Pence to score the go-ahead run.

Then after Sanchez struck out, Machi advanced to second on defensive indifference — not a stolen base. The rally ended after an intentional walk to Brandon Belt and a strikeout by Brandon Hicks.

After Sergio Romo locked down the save, Machi found himself leading the National League in wins by improving his mark to 5-0 on the season.

Jean Machi is now 5-0 with a 0.53 ERA. And one sacrifice bunt.

All this from a guy who was best known to Giants fans for breaking wind in the bullpen after getting called up to Triple-A last season.

There’s nothing good to blog about after the Giants got swept by the Brewers in a series in which Buster Posey continues to struggle, Barry Zito got lit up for the first time in a long time , and Matt Cain got lit up AGAIN.

So there was only thing that Giants fans could smile about from the three-game in Milwaukee and it came compliments of Jean Machi.

During Tuesday’s CSN Bay Area broadcast, announcers Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow were talking about a Giants transaction that day which brought reliever Jean Machi from Triple-A Fresno to fill the roster spot of Jeremy Affeldt, who went on the DL.

So the camera naturally cut to Machi in the bullpen, sitting next to Jose Mijares. And we got this:

Hilarious. And we thank Twitter handle @carmenview for providing the GIF. And it’s a GIF that permeated the internet on Tuesday.

And lingered into Wednesday.

So when Machi actually got into the game Wednesday, it set off a wildfire of flatulence tweets on Twitter.

And MoreSplashHits will admit that we got into the act.

Here are our Machi tweets @Moresplashhits on Wednesday

“#SFGiants call on Jean Machi, because they seek some relief.”

“In case you were wondering, Machi wasn’t praying behind the mound there.” (Machi squatted down behind the mound after making his warm-up pitches)

“When the catcher visits mound to talk to Jean Machi, the catcher covers his face with his glove.”

“Krukow after that last pitch from Machi ‘That was nasty’ and he wasn’t talking about the pitch.”

The last two times Jeremy Affeldt went on the disabled list, there was an interesting to story to go with it.

But not this time. Affeldt was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right oblique strain on Tuesday. At least, not yet.

Affeldt told manager Bruce Bochy he didn’t feel anything when he pitched on Sunday, when he walked three leading to two runs that allowed the Cubs to take the lead in the eighth inning. He said he didn’t feel anything until Monday’s off day, and an MRI on Tuesday confirmed the oblique strain.

The Giants said they didn’t know how or when Affeldt hurt himself. Could it be he’s not telling us something?

The last time Affeldt went on the DL was last year when his son, excited to greet his father as he came home from a game, jumped off the sofa and into his father. Affeldt suffered a sprained knee.

Affeldt’s previous trip to the DL to that came late in the 2011 season, when while BBQing on a day off in San Francisco, Affeldt sliced his hand with a knife trying to separate frozen hamburger patties.

So there’s got to be a good story with this one.

Here are some possibilities:

He hurt his side by laughing so hard while attending a performance of Second City while in Chicago.

He hurt himself while performing the “Schlemiel! Schlimazel!” bit from Laverne and Shirley with George Kontos during a visit to the Shotz Brewery in Milwaukee.

It happened while giving Hunter Pence a high-five following Pence’s game-tying home run on Sunday. If that’s the case, the Giants are lucky not to have more players on the DL.

Affeldt jumped out of bed after having a nightmare, thinking the Giants were staying at the haunted hotel frequented by MLB teams while staying in Milwaukee.

Pablo Sandoval was really excited to see Affeldt return to the team hotel, so he got up on the bed and ….

Any of those explanations would be good.

Anyway, the Giants called up Jean Machi to fill Affeldt’s roster spot. Machi had thrown five scoreless innings in five appearances this year for the Fresno Grizzlies. He has allowed five hits and one walk while striking out five.

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